Colorado Free Radio Old Time Radio Presents

We continue our presentation of Journey into Space, Jet Morgan and the Red Planet with episodes 3 and 4.

Journey Into Space was a science fiction series broadcast on BBC radio in the 1950s. It began in 1953 and lasted for three series by the end of which it had become a radio legend. The cliff-hanging adventures of Jet Morgan were broadcast on the Light Programme and enthralled millions of listeners in the age before television dominated home entertainment.

Besides Jet, the Captain, there was cockney radio operator Lemmy Barnett, Doc Matthews and engineer Steven Mitchell. Their first trip was to the moon in Operation Luna. They later travelled to Mars in The Red Planet. The final serial told the tale of The World in Peril. The three stories were written by the man responsible for creating and producing the series, Charles Chilton - a producer whose credits included the Goon Show and Riders of the Range. Chilton had the unnerving method of writing each half-hour episode only days before the recording and also made pioneering use of tape and electronic effects. When transcription recordings of the show were made, the trilogy was sold abroad to 22 different countries.

From 28th April 1956 a comic strip version of Journey Into Space appeared in the pages of Express Weekly and ran until 1957. It was written by Charles Chilton and drawn by Tacconi and later Bruce Cornwall and Terence Patrick.

The story that ran in the weekly pages was entitled Planet of Fear and began with Discovery blasting off from Moonbase IV on a routine mission to Mars in 1976. The drawings of Jet, Mitch, Doc and Lemmy were based on the actors who portrayed them in The World In Peril.

The Six Shooter brought James Stewart to the NBC microphone on September 20, 1953, in a fine series of folksy Western adventures.
Stewart was never better on the air than in this drama of Britt Ponset, frontier drifter created by Frank Burt. The epigraph set it up nicely: “The man in the saddle is angular and long-legged: his skin is sun dyed brown. The gun in his holster is gray steel and rainbow mother-of-pearl. People call them both The Six Shooter.” Ponset was a wanderer, an easy-going gentleman and — when he had to be — a gunfighter.

Stewart was right in character as the slow-talking maverick who usually blundered into other people’s troubles and sometimes shot his way out. His experiences were broad, but The Six Shooter leaned more to comedy than other shows of its kind. Ponset took time out to play Hamlet with a crude road company. He ran for mayor and sheriff of the same town at the same time. He became involved in a delighful Western version of Cinderella, complete with grouchy stepmother, ugly sisters, and a shoe that didn’t fit. And at Christmas he told a young runaway the story of A Christmas Carol, Substituting the original Dickens characters with Western heavies. Britt even had time to fall in love, but it was the age-old story of people from different worlds, and the romance was foredoomed despite their valiant efforts to save it.

So we got a cowboy-into-the-sunset ending for this series, truly one of the bright spots of radio. Unfortunately, it came too late, and lasted only one season.

It was a transcribed show, sustained by NBC and directed by Jack Johnstone. Basil Adlam provided the music and Frank Burt wrote the scripts. Hal Gibney announced.

Information from John Dunning’s “Tune In Yesterday The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio”.

Although The Mercury Theater on the Air only lasted five months, it was responsible for the most famous production in radio history.
Actor/director Orson Welles and producer John Houseman had formed the Mercury Theater in 1937, taking Broadway by storm with their ambitious productions. CBS was impressed enough to offer the Mercury Theater its own one-hour program in the summer of 1938. The Mercury Theater on the Air focused on classic literature; early productions included “Treasure Island,” “The Count of Monte Cristo” and “Dracula,” which opened the series on July 11, 1938.

As with Les Misérables the previous year, Welles was given complete creative control by CBS over the new series. The choices he made in developing the series were informed by what he had learned in previous years in other radio dramas. Chief among those choices was to create dramas specifically for the radio and not to simply adapt dramas in production at the Mercury Theatre for broadcast. In close collaboration with John Houseman and other writers, Welles wrote, directed and performed in the productions. The end result was a series of dramas based on literary, rather than dramatic, works.
Orson Welles was born in Kenosha, Wisconsin in 1915. As a young man, Welles appeared on the series Cavalcade of America and The March of Time before writing, directing and starring in the Mutual network’s 1937 production of Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables. That fall, Welles assumed the title role on The Shadow, while earning raves on Broadway with his new troupe, the Mercury Theater
Welles launched a successful film career in 1941, co-writing, directing and starring in the legendary Citizen Kane, The Magnificent Ambersons and Touch of Evil. He remained active in radio throughout his career, later starring in the BBC series The Third Man—based on his 1949 film—and The Black Museum.

Orson Welles died on October 10, 1985. John Houseman died on October 31, 1988.

Orson Welles was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1988

The Adventures of Superman, adapted from the DC Comics character created in 1938, came to radio as a syndicated show on New York City’s WOR on February 12, 1940. On Mutual, it was broadcast from August 31, 1942, to January 28, 1949, as a 15-minute serial, running three or, usually, five times a week. From January 31 to June 17, 1949 it ran as a thrice-weekly half-hour show. The series shifted to ABC Saturday mornings on November 5, 1949, and then to twice-a-week in June 1950, continuing on ABC until March 1, 1951.
The character created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster arrived on radio not long after the comic book and took on an added dimension with Bud Collyer in the title role. During World War II and the post-war years, the juvenile adventure radio serial, sponsored by Kellogg’s Pep, was a huge success, with many listeners following the quest for “truth, justice and the American way” in the daily radio broadcasts, the comic book stories and the newspaper comic strip.

Airing in the late afternoon (variously at 5:15pm, 5:30pm and 5:45pm), the radio serial engaged its young, after-school audience with its exciting and distinctive opening:

Faster than a speeding bullet!
More powerful than a locomotive!
Able to leap tall buildings with a single bound!
Look ! Up in the sky!
It’s a bird!
It’s a plane!
It’s Superman!
Because Superman’s true identity was a secret, it is often believed that the identity of radio actor Collyer also remained a secret. But while it is true that Collyer was left off the program’s credits, as early as September 14, 1942 Time ran an article identifying the actor and joshing him for his many Sunday school fans. In 1946, Collyer’s name was finally added to the radio credits.

Since there were no reruns at that time, the series often used plot devices and plot twists to allow Collyer to have vacation time. Kryptonite was the most famous of these, allowing Superman to be incapacitated and incoherent with pain while secondary characters took the focus instead. At other times, Batman and Robin appeared in Superman’s absence.

The scripts by B.P. Freeman and Jack Johnstone were directed by Robert and Jessica Maxwell, George Lowther, Allen Ducovny and Mitchell Grayson. Sound effects were created by Jack Keane, Al Binnie, Keene Crockett and John Glennon.

The original Blue Beetle, Dan Garrett, first appeared in Fox Comics’ Mystery Men Comics #1 (Aug. 1939), with art by Charles Nicholas Wojtkowski (as Charles Nicholas), though the Grand Comics Database tentatively credits Will Eisner as the scripter.[1] A rookie police officer, he utilized special equipment, a bulletproof costume (sometimes) and a superstrength-inducing “vitamin”, and the assistance of a neighborhood pharmacist to fight crime. He starred in a comic book series, comic strip and radio serial but, like most Golden Age superheroes, he fell into obscurity in the 1950s. The comic book series saw a number of anomalies in publication: 19 issues, #12 through #30, were published through Holyoke Publishing; no issue #43 was published; publication frequency varied through the run; and there were gaps where issues were not published, with large ones occurring in early 1947 and between mid-1948 and early 1950.

The Blue Beetle had a relatively short career on the radio, between May and September of 1940. Motion picture and radio actor Frank Lovejoy was the Blue Beetle for the first 13 episodes, while for the rest of the shows, the voice was provided by a different, uncredited actor.
The Blue Beetle was a young police officer who saw the need for extra-ordinary crime fighting. He took the task on himself by secretly donning a superhero costume to create fear in the criminals who were to learn to fear the Blue Beetle’s wrath. The 13-minute segments were usually only two-parters, so the stories were often more simple than other popular programs, such as the Superman radio serial.

The finest radio drama of the 1930’s was The Mercury Theatre on the Air, a show featuring the acclaimed New York drama company founded by Orson Welles and John Houseman. In its brief run, it featured an impressive array of talents, including Agnes Moorehead, Bernard Herrmann, and George Coulouris. The show is famous for its notorious War of the Worlds broadcast, but the other shows in the series are relatively unknown.

The show first broadcast on CBS and CBC in July 1938. It ran without a sponsor until December of that year, when it was picked up by Campbell’s Soup and renamed The Campbell Playhouse. The Mercury Theater on the Air concentrated on classic literature such as ” Treasure Island,” “The Count of Monte Cristo” and “Dracula.” Radio listeners knew that the show was unique and the acting of Welles Virginia Welles (Mrs. Orson Welles), Agnes Moorehead, and Everett Sloane and others as well as the musical compositions by Bernard Herrmann was exceptional.

In 1947 Orson Wells’ playbook of Jules Vernes story was adapted to the musical stage by Cole Porte. The show opened at the Adelphi Theatre, NYC on May 31st 1946 and ran for 75 performances. The show closed on August 3rd 1946. Directed by Orson Welles the show’s cast was.

Orson Welles (Dick Fix)
Arthur Margetson (Phileas Fogg)
Mary Healy (Missus Aouda)
Julie Warren (Molly Muggins)
Larry Laurence [Enzio Stuarti] (”Pat” Passepartout)
Victoria Cordova (Lola)

“Around the World in 80 Days” stared Orson Welles as Phileas Fogg and aired on October 23rd 1938 one week before the infamous and historic “War of the Worlds” broadcast.

Join your host Johnny Night as we follow Phileas Fogg around the globe on this timeless adventure by Jules Verne.

“EDWARDS, GEORGE (1886-1953), pioneer of the radio serial in Australia, was born Harold Parks on 11 March 1886 at Kent Town, South Australia, elder son of Lewis Arthur Parks, grocer’s assistant and later manager of Crawford Co., Adelaide, and his wife Sarah Jane, née Turbill. After leaving North Norwood Public School at 11, Hal worked as an office boy with D. & J. Fowler, wholesale grocers and importers, and later with Wood, Son & Co. He joined the Appendrena Club of Dramatic Players; a talented mimic, he also performed comic duets with his brother Albert Lewis (Lew).

Hal became an acrobatic dancer and patter artist in vaudeville and costume farce. He toured Australia, New Zealand, the United States of America and, during World War I, South Africa, but never achieved major success. On 9 May 1925 he married Mollie Hughes in Sydney, and in 1929 was a featured entertainer on the Sydney Show Boat. By this time vaudeville was dying and in 1927-31 he made a number of short films including The Haunted Barn (1931). He also acted as a theatrical agent with his brother.

In 1931, encouraged by Lew, Parks moved into radio, doing comedy sketches for the Australian Broadcasting Company, sometime in partnership with his daughter Chandra. He changed his name to George Edwards, not bothering to dispel popular confusion with the celebrated George Edwards, London theatrical entrepreneur. In October to December 1931 he broadcast with the A.B.C. Light Opera Co.; in December he and Chandra were among the A.B.C. Players whose repertoire included The Ghost Train, often cited as the play which drew public attention to Edwards. Early in 1932 he had a new partner for his comedy routines, a young soubrette, Helen Dorothy Malmgrom, who had worked with him on the Show Boat and who now took the name Nell Stirling. Early in 1933 George moved to the commercial radio station 2UE, and in May George, Nell and an enthusiastic writer, Maurice Francis, went to 2GB as the nucleus of the George Edwards Players, masters of the melodramatic and comic serial.

To save money Edwards played a variety of roles—and became known as ‘The Man with a Thousand Voices’. It was a ventriloquial gift that encompassed small children, every variety of male voice, aged women and foreigners. The maximum number of voices Edwards produced for a single scene was six; in the course of a single episode he would often double it. By 1936 when he moved to 2UW Edwards led the list of the ten favourite Sydney radio personalities. Beginning at breakfast with Darby and Joan, George Edwards Productions, whose scripts Maurice Francis wrote with extraordinary rapidity, would see the night out with Famous Trials. In between were historical dramas, detective thrillers and children’s serials ranging from Inspector Scott of Scotland Yard to the popular Dad and Dave, begun in May 1937. Edwards’s last radio serial, in 1953, was Ralph Rashleigh. At first performed live, the serials were later recorded without rehearsal under the Columbia imprint and sold throughout Australia and New Zealand.”

Coral Lansbury, ‘Edwards, George (1886 - 1953)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 8, Melbourne University Press, 1981, pp 416-417.

And now CFR Old Time Radio Presnts
FRANKENSTEIN, the original radio serial from 1931. George Edwards stars as Baron Victor Frankenstein, who tells the terrifying story of the horror he has unleashed in the world: a monster who delights in taking human life. A rarely-heard vintage radio dramatization in 13 episodes.

Your Host Johnny Night presents three episodes from Frankenstein (1931) interspersed with vintage commercials. starring the renouned father of Australian serial radio, George Edwards. Join Night, as we stroll down Nostalgia Lane.

Journey Into Space was a BBC Radio science fiction programme, written by BBC producer Charles Chilton. Three series were produced, which have been translated into 17 languages[1] and broadcast worldwide.[1] In the UK it was the last radio programme to attract a bigger evening audience than television.

The first series was created in 1953, soon after Riders of the Range (a popular Western, also written by Chilton) ended its six seasons on the BBC Light Programme. Michael Standing, then Head of the BBC Variety Department, asked Chilton if he could write a sci-fi programme, and Journey to the Moon (later known as Operation Luna) was the result.

Each half-hour episode would usually end with a dramatic cliffhanger (a popular plot device used to increase the audience’s incentive to tune in to the next episode).

The Red Planet

The second series, The Red Planet, followed the adventures of the crew in their first attempt to reach and explore Mars. Several new characters were introduced, the most notable of which were Frank Rogers and James Edward Whitaker, the two original crewmen of freighter #2. Chilton took the name Whitaker from a copy of Whitaker’s Almanack which was sitting on his desk.

In addition to the main cast, other cast members in The Red Planet were:

David Jacobs – Frank Rogers and miscellaneous characters
Anthony Marriott
Miriam Karlin
John Cazabon
Madi Hedd
Don Sharp

Colorado Free Presents Episodes 1 and 2 of “Jet Morgan, Journey in to Space The Red Planet”, join your host Johnny Night as he takes you down Nostalgia Lane.